1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to retroreflective articles comprising a pressure-sensitive, lightly or non-crosslinked adhesive layer made by a solvent free, hot melt process from a tackified, amorphous hydrocarbon elastomer which adheres to a wide variety of substrates adapted for life saving devices at sea without the need of a primer.
2. Related Art
Retroreflective articles have many uses. Often it is desired to adhere retroreflective articles to other articles, thereby making a portion of the second article visible at night or in inclement weather. If an adhesive is to be used to adhere the retroreflective article to the second article, the environmental conditions must be taken into consideration.
Retroreflective articles may be used to reflectorize life saving devices, such as, for example, life vests and jackets used in marine settings, i.e., conditions of high humidity and/or water immersion. In these conditions, the current technology to reflectorize these materials is to first apply a solvent-based adhesive primer to the material. Then an acrylic or highly tackified synthetic rubber adhesive-backed retroreflective article is applied to the primed area. The adhesive primer is required in order that the retroreflective article remain on the vest under high humidity and/or water immersion conditions. The current adhesive primers (for example that known under the trade designation E-44, available from assignee) are found to work only on selected substrates, and are not preferred by the user because of their odor and additional application time (applying the primer onto the substrate and waiting for the primer to dry). Life vests, life jackets and life rafts, for example, may comprise a number of different materials, including one or more of the following: polymer coated fabric (such as plasticized polyvinylchloride coated fabric, rubber coated cloth and the like), vinyl film/nylon cloth laminates, cotton drill, fiberglass, polyolefin film, vinyl film, and the like. It would be preferred if a retroreflective article were available having a pressure-sensitive adhesive thereon that would adhere to a variety of life-saving device fabrics, without the need of a primer.